Top 372 Civic Quotes & Sayings

Marriage is a civic matter. It is really not, together with all its circumstances, the business of the church.

I've always held a pretty strong civic duty.

It's not as though there aren't many, many art works and many other cultures, but there was something special about the civic nature of the Greek theater. All the citizens stopped working. They came into these theaters. It wasn't like a Broadway theater where you sit in the dark and you expect to be passively entertained. You're in this theater, amphitheater, in bright sunlight looking at your fellow citizens, recognizing their faces, and thinking with them about the future of your city. I think very few cultures have had a theatrical tradition that is quite so civic.

Equal justice under law is a spiritual as well as a civic principle.

I've tried to be active in civic organizations as well as the Church.

Civic participation over a lifetime, working in neighborhoods and communities and service of all kinds - military and civilian, full-time and part-time, national and international - will strengthen America's civic purpose.

I probably got from my mom a passion for public policy and and civic involvement.

Using the language of heroism, calling Daniel Ellsberg a hero, and calling the other people who made great sacrifices heroes - even though what they have done is heroic - is to distinguish them from the civic duty they performed, and excuses the rest of us from the same civic duty to speak out when we see something wrong, when we witness our government engaging in serious crimes, abusing power, engaging in massive historic violations of the Constitution of the United States. We have to speak out or we are party to that bad action.

The freedoms that people have that flow from all civic institutions fundamentally come from the success of a market system.

I believe an invitation from the Commission on Presidential Debates is similar to a draft notice - a civic responsibility.

Sanitation and cleanliness are among the humblest of the civic virtues, and it is easy to underestimate their significance.

The public realm in America has two roles: it is the dwelling place of our civilization and our civic life, and it is the physical manifestation of the common good. When you degrade the public realm, you will automatically degrade the quality of your civic life and the character of all the enactments of your public life and communal life that take place there.

Do creative, social, and civic attitudes change depending on where we live? Yes, I think so.

A constitutional democracy is in serious trouble if its citizenry does not have a certain degree of education and civic virtue.

I believe that women should have equal rights to education, to work and to civic and political engagement.

Voting is a civic sacrament - the highest responsibility we have as Americans.

Democracy is still upon its trial. The civic genius of our people is its only bulwark.

There is a sense of civic connection to the city when you light up iconic buildings or sites.

Let's summon the courage to insist on a minimal level of civic knowledge for the citizens empowered to decide our fate.

Voter apathy is a civic abdication.

In terms of behaving in a civic way, I feel my behavior is always exemplary.

Skepticism is the agent of reason against organized irrationalism--and is therefore one of the keys to human social and civic decency.

Well, if there is a spectrum between ethnic and civic forms of nationalism, which is a rather schematic way of looking at it, all nationalism contains elements of both, but Scotland is very far on the civic end of the spectrum. That is partly because nobody has ever been stupid enough to say that Scotland is an ethnicity in a genetic sense. A kingdom of Scotland existed long before anybody talked of a Scottish people. So that is one thing we have been spared.

A civic-minded nation is built by civic-minded neighbourhoods, whether in our cities or our villages. Where we respect the next-door person's space, privacy and rights. Where we do not inconvenience our neighbours - while celebrating a festival or while resorting to a protest or on any other occasion.

There are no general-interest media that all of us can tap into. I'm not a good person to talk to about social media. I just avoid it. I'm suspicious also of the culture of venting. But the bigger question is, How can we in this media world have a genuine civic conversation? I mean, look at Franklin Roosevelt. He had these radio talks that all Americans listened to, and there was a common civic conversation that came out of it.

The Civic Culture (and The Civic Culture Revisited) remains the best study of comparative political culture in our time.

I want paying taxes to feel like the accomplishment of a civic duty.

Our civic society is really all we have by way of nationhood.

Distrust of authority should be the first civic duty.

If parents instill a sense of civic-mindedness - and there is no better way to do that than by example - their children will probably follow.

There's a civic nationalism in Britain and dozens of other countries.

I'm a civic busybody and I've been blessed with an active career.

What's similar between Britain and America is the lack of good-quality civic buildings.

Let's get our civic laws right and abide by them.

A country is more than an economy. We're a civic society.

One of the things I really want is for people to feel the civic responsibility, and not just refuse to vote out of protest.

If America has a civic religion, the First Amendment is its central article of faith.

The rise of civic society is not a negation of politics, but marks an opportunity for the involvement of the people.

It is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state.

I'd hate to imply that it's your civic duty to see The House I Live In, but guess what it is.

We need to encourage young women to run for office and become civic leaders in their own communities.

Paying tax should be framed as a glorious civic duty worthy of gratitude - not a punishment for making money.

We've got to change the culture of riding the T. It is a civic space for community conversations, but everyone's always really quiet on there.

Anyway, it's not true that the authorities cannot access the content of the phone even if there is no back door. When I was at the NSA, we did this every single day, even on Sundays. I believe that encryption is a civic responsibility, a civic duty.

There're the causes where people are like, "What can you do for us? You guys have success and stature; you can make money for us and at the same time present yourselves to the public as altruistic and civic-minded." So it's an exchange. I don't mind looking altruistic and civic-minded if we're actually being that way.

Civic engagement means working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make that difference. It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes.

The walls are raised against honest men in civic life.

The Civic University operates on a global scale but uses its location to form its identity.

When science drove the gods out of nature, they took refuge in poetry and the porticos of civic buildings.

One must always be civic-minded.

I'm convinced in 100 years Obama will have an important place in the civic pantheon of American life.

It was Chicago with its World's Fair which vivified the national desire for civic beauty.

My parents gave us a strong sense of civic responsibility.

When civic leaders are in love with their cities they are listened to; they are credible.

Cooking is one of the oldest arts and one which has rendered us the most important service in civic life.

Civic education and civic responsibility should be taught in elementary school.

Voting is a civic sacrament.

Black women care deeply about civic engagement, democracy, education, children, and justice.

Democratic dissent is not disloyalty, it is a positive civic duty.

I didn't quite agree with the Supreme Court ruling that forced civic clubs to take women.